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Between 2005 and 2009, Band on the Wall and the Picturehouse buildings were subject to extensive £3.6 million renovations, funded by Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund and Manchester City Council. Alongside breathing new life into these iconic venues, there was also a requirement that a percentage of the build cost was spent on public art work.

Inner City Music (ICM), the registered charity that owns and operates Band on the Wall, is a member of the Manchester Arts Sustainability Team (MAST) and actively working on the reducing the environmental impact its activities. This means that, at the same time as considering the artworks, ICM had sustainability at the forefront of their plans.

This means that, at the same time as considering the artworks, Inner City Music had sustainability at the forefront of their plans.

And so we turn to the carpet. Perhaps not the first thing you’d think of when contemplating artwork, but in the case of Band on the Wall, this is exactly where some of it lay. The carpet was the highest quality Axminster, manufactured by Brintons and featured a unique three-dimensional design. It was incredibly intricate and designed on a 1 to 1 scale – so each pixel was a tuft of wool – and represented the cutting edge of carpet manufacture. However, the carpet had suffered significant damage from chewing gum and, although ICM tried various methods of cleaning, the decision was taken to cover the carpet, in turn covering the artwork.

Inner City Music has taken this action as an opportunity. It does have a long-term plan to replace the carpet with something of equivalent quality, but in the meantime it’s taking the opportunity to educate audiences on the importance of disposing their waste properly and conscientiously.

Saving the carpet, one gumdrop at a time…

Chewing gum waste is a major blight on the streets and floors of the UK and costs millions of pounds of public money to remove. But all of us can do our bit in reducing rubbish around our cities and gum users particularly should consider the disproportionate cost of the waste they could be creating. Gumdrops are a great way of highlighting the fact that gum is waste, and it’s not acceptable to just spit onto the ground.

Enter Gumdrop Ltd, the innovative award winning company that developed the world’s first process to recycle waste gum into a new polymer, Gumtec. In a pilot project supported by Wrigleys, Gumdrop has supplied little pink bins to Band on the Wall as a place for patrons to dispose of their chewed gum. These bins, and their contents, are sent back to Gumdrop, where they’re recycled and made into new gumdrop bins and a whole host of new products.

Six months on and the bins have been a great success in reducing the damage to the floors. From the Band on the Wall’s point of view, people using the Gumdrop bins keeps the venue looking good for musicians, staff and patrons, and helps to create a place that want to visit, hire and support.

When Gumdrop sent over some plectrums made from recycled chewing gum, Band on the Wall even made a video of them being used by the band Papa Guns, made up of Band on the Wall employees, Adam and Alex.

When Gumdrop sent over some plectrums made from recycled chewing gum, Band on the Wall even made a video of them being used by the band Papa Guns, made up of Band on the Wall employees, Adam and Alex.

So, thank you if you have used the little pink gumdrops, you are helping make music...

Links

Band on the Wall Green Venue 
Gumdrop 
Wrigleys – Principles in Action 

Main image used courtesy of Flickr user Pam loves pie under a creative commons licence.